Lockdown Tensions
After many weeks of lockdown, strains are showing. Families are struggling to juggle kids and work and folk who live on their own are finding it hard to cope with the loss of companionship and physical human contact.
Made in the image of the ever-fellowshipping Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, lockdown is forcing us to run against the grain of our Maker's design, "it is not good for man (or woman) to be alone."
The Promises of God (1) "I will never leave you"
In just a time as this, we consider the wonderful promise of God,
"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5 / Deuteronomy 31:6)
What an amazing promise! The two lines build on each other. If the first line means "I will always be close to you" and points to his ever-present care, the second line goes further and teaches that God will never deliberately give up on us. If we might use a parallel: parents can accidently loose track of a child for a moment - God will never do that. But parents can also deliberately give up on a child - God will never do that.
This is one of those promises which was first given to Israel, God's Old Covenant people of God, but a New Covenant writer is pleased, by the inspiration of God's Spirit, to apply it to the church.
A Promise to Israel is often a Promise to the Church
This insight in itself tells us that when we find wonderful comforting and general promises in the Old Testament, we are at prayerful liberty to apply them to ourselves. For example, we can surely also apply Jeremiah 29:11 to ourselves: "I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
When today's promise was first made to Israel, the people of God were passing through a season of transition. Moses had been leading them for 40 years, and now it was time for Joshua to take over the reins, under God. The future was fraught with potential danger, because now the real work of inhabiting the promised land (also known as "kicking out the Caananites!") began. God comforts his people by saying that he will cross over with them, and ahead of them.
"The Lord your God himself will cross over ahead of you."
Whatever the uncertain future holds, God himself will be there before us!
God will never forget us
So let us be comforted today by two thoughts.
First, God will never forget us, "Never will I leave you."
No human parent can ever say this! Every human parent has those moments when they accidently forget a child, whether distracted by another child, or another event or person. Few parents get through their parenting years without some embarassing wish-to-forget absent-minded moment, when they literally forgot their child!
I am always intrigued by the difference between the way fathers and mothers lead their children across a road. Fathers can look both ways, note that the coast is clear and charge off ahead, leaving the kids behind, hoping the little ducklings are in tow!
Mothers, on the other hand, will often walk with their little ones and even behind them!
God is like a mother who's eyes are always on her children.
And since God does not slumber or sleep, he never leaves us for a moment of the day. What do we say? He is with us 24/7/365.
God will never Abandon Us
Even more wonderful, God will never abandon us, "Never will I forsake you." If the first line of the promise was from the realm of accidental neglect, this second line is from the field of wilful disowning.
God will never abandon us.
Some mothers, in the days when pregnancy out of wedlock was regarded as sinful by our culture, felt under pressure to disown their babies at birth. There are few more painful maternal decisions. (We may approve of the marriage-is-valuable ethos of that day, but surely we must lament the judgemental spirit that would lead a girl to abandon her child, and lament the lack of grace and compassion towards her.)
During the plague of 1348 it was quite common for parents to desert a child who had the plague. Not to, was a certain death sentence on the parent.
We would be surely arrogant to judge the parents in either of the above cases.
God will never deliberately, of set purpose and conscious decision, forsake us.
The reason he will never abandon us lies in the New Covenant, which God has forged with his people, through the sacrificial blood of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. "Covenant" means binding agreement! When God says "I will love you," "I will Redeem you," "I will save you from your sins," "I will adopt you into my family" he not only means it but he has the power to keep it!
In Old Testament times, peoples and nations would make covenants with a sacrifical animal, in blood. It meant nothing less than "if I break the deal, what has happened to this animal will happen to me." People were rather careful about keeping promises made in blood!
Every time we take communion and hear the words of Jesus, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." (Luke 22:20) we are remembering the binding agreement God has made with us, not through a mere animal, but through the precious blood of his only begotten Son.
Summing it all Up
"But I don't feel God is near me!" On occasion a marriage partner may not feel close to the one they are married to. But the covenant still exists. To power a marriage on feeling is fatal. God is always near to us.
"But I still don't feel God is near me!" Well then, obey this command: "draw near to God and he will draw near to you." (James 4:8) You make the first move, and God graciously promises to make the second.
"It's not working!" Is it unrepented sin? The prodigal's own rebellion led him away from his father's house. Dads can't be blamed for kids running off. Dad was ready to receive his erring son's confession, "father I have sinned against you...." and ready to robe, ring and dine his lost son. Confess your sin.
"Still not feeling his presence!" Well, perhaps you're just a bit too touchy-feely. We live by faith not by feelings. God has said he will never leave or abandon us, and that's a fact. Believe it!
A SONG FOR THE DAY
Our song for the day was written by a heart-broken man who had expereinced human love go south. In his sorrow he remembers The Love that never gives up.
Since I am missing congregational singing, here's what singing with each other sounds like. Remember?
O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
that in thine ocean depths its flow
may richer, fuller be.
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life's glory dead,
and from the ground there blossoms red,
life that shall endless be.
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
that in thine ocean depths its flow
may richer, fuller be.
O Light that follow'st all my way,
I yield my flick'ring torch to thee;
my heart restores its borrowed ray,
that in thy sunshine's blaze its day
may brighter, fairer be.
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow thro' the rain,
and feel the promise is not vain
that morn shall tearless be.
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life's glory dead,
and from the ground there blossoms red,
life that shall endless be.
George Matheson
You can here it HERE.
A PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Dear loving Father in heaven,
We thank you for this new day and for every good and perfect gift that comes down from you, the Father of the heavenly lights, the one who does not change like shifting shadows.
We thank you that you keep all your promises. We thank you that you never leave us or forsake us.
Teach us when we feel, for one reason or another, that you have left us to remember this promise and help to remember that they have all been made certain through your Son.
Forgive our sins according to your promise, and help us today to live a life that honours you in thought, word and deed.
For we pray these things in the Name of Jesus
Amen.
Photo by Matt Seymour on Unsplash
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